


As real as was ever made

by livinginadaydream (orphan_account)



Category: Disney RPF, Jonas Brothers
Genre: Artificial Intelligence AU, Fluff, M/M, Pre-Slash, Robot AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-08-25
Updated: 2010-08-25
Packaged: 2017-10-12 18:12:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,406
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/127662
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/livinginadaydream
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Joe gets home from the hospital, he's told he's got a robot for a brother.</p>
            </blockquote>





	As real as was ever made

Being ten is kind of hard. Everyone treats you like you're stupid, but you know more than they apparently think you do. And yet, there's a world of things that confuse you. Joe comes home from the hospital to find that he has a little brother.

According to Mandy, it's supposed to be his mother who goes to the hospital, pregnant, and she's supposed to bring your brother home. But it's, "Honey, we have a little surprise for you. Are you feeling up to a little company?" that Joe hears a few minutes after his eyes open to find that he's back in his bedroom. (It's even more awesome than he remembers, even though he's still hooked up to these humming machines and there's needles pinned up, under his skin. At least it's not all stark-white and glaring lights.) He's confused and his mother can tell, as she runs her palm up his forehead, brushing the bangs away from his eyes. She leans into his rocket ship-bed and kisses his brow, ignoring the dabble of sweat. He blinks up at her a few times and then nods his head. Joe's always liked meeting people, making friends.

The problem is when mom and dad bring 'company' in, it's not what he expects. This boy, he's a little rigid when he walks, which Joe can understand. He's not even allowed to walk and hasn't been for a few days, but he'll have to soon, he knows, so they don't have to shoot him up with re-gen shots like they did a month ago. Joe knows first-hand how sometimes it gets difficult to stand up and walk because your muscles are tired and don't feel like going anywhere, because they're heavy. Maybe, he thinks, they brought this boy home from the hospital too. For company? Maybe his parents are waiting downstairs to take him home. He is wearing all white, could be hospital-administered pajamas.

"This," his mother says, soft with worried eyes that make Joe's breathing hitch even as the tubes in his nose blow oxygen just for him, "is Nick. He's your - He's your brother, sweetheart." Joe mouths the word. 'Brother'. He was in the hospital a long time, way too long, but he knows for a fact, mostly, that there's no way this whole entire kid happened while he was gone.

"What?" Joe asks, throat dry, eyebrows knitting together as he takes in the boy in front of him. There's a perfect set of curls on his head, and the whites of his eyes are so clear that Joe sinks into the deep brown for just a moment. He feels like he has to physically pull himself out of them just to seek his mother's face again.

Dad steps forward, hand on mom's shoulder and she steps back as if he pushed her away. He kneels down in front of Joe's bed and gives him a go-get-'em-tiger smile that Joe hasn't seen since before he got diagnosed. It's pretty unfortunate that Joe lost his very last game, probably the last game he'd ever play. "Son, while you were sick, mommy and daddy missed you. We got lonely. And well, God, He provides us things, people who have intelligences and talents to fix our problems. They... You know the robots that used to help you breathe, when we didn't know what was happening to your body?" Joe nods, but he doesn't see where dad's going with this.

Those robots were all metal, all wired up and computer-activated. All you had to do was push one over and it'd take forever to get back up. Joe knows. He got scared the first time, startled he'd say, and he kicked the first one over before his father and a nurse came to explain what they were doing. It still hurt when the cold metal traced his ribs before poking in a sharp, quick jab that made his lungs fill a lot less like they were made of water.

"Well you see, they figured out how to make boy robots, and girl robots, and mommy and daddy bought you a brother." Joe wrinkles his nose up in disdain but then sputters out a shallow cough when the tubes roll up too high in his nostrils and he has to loosen up his entire face just to get rid of the tickle that would make him sneeze. (Sneezing is the worst. It feels like a giant is stepping on his entire body. Plus it really freaks him out when he doesn't have his oxygen in, and those come shooting out _every time_.) "Joseph, are you okay?" Kevin asks, hand lightly on top of Joe's chest to feel the up-and-down that say his son's lungs are working, before he turns his head. "Denise, get Nick out of here. They can talk later after Joe gets some rest."

The eyelids flap closed over Nick's perfect eyes and flap back open as he watches the exchange and feels his being get dragged backwards an inch before mother is pushing him towards the door. Nick keeps his eyes on Joe, and Joe keeps his eyes on Nick, all the way out the door. Nick thinks he feels happy, elated even, that he's not got a friend, a _brother_ , to play with. But mother's face is sad when he looks up at her face surrounded by ringlets that nearly match his curls. "Did I do something wrong, mother?" he asks, and she shakes her head no, coming around to crouch down before him.

"Listen to me Nicky. Joseph, well, he's sick. Remember what I told you before daddy went to the hospital?" Nick nods his head, and Denise feels the slotting of the metal where she holds his face in her hands, palms to his jaws. "Well, your brother needs more time to get used to things, especially you, since you're new and he didn't know you before he left. Does that make sense?"

"I think so," Nick says honestly, because that's what he's programmed to do. It partially makes sense, anyway. Only, he felt right at home when he arrived, and _everything_ had been new to him. Maybe Joe is special, he thinks, and he offers his mother a soft quirk of his lips. As she stands up again, she kisses his cheek and then grips his little hand in her soft one.

As the walk down the stairs, Nick naturally leans into her, legs still not perfectly stable, she asks, "How about we sit down and read a book until dad says it's time to go see Joe again, hm?" Nick smiles at her again, stiffly, but it's a smile she's come to adore, and she smiles right back. Even as they lay back on the couch, his back to her chest with the book open in front of them, and the words coming out soft beside his ear, he can feel that she's more tense than usual. He thinks, for a moment, of telling her that he's decided he _doesn't_ understand, but she mentions a prince, and squeezes his shoulder, and he forgets what it is, exactly, that he was unsure of.

Tonight, mother lays a sheet out on the floor of Joe's bedroom and puts a pillow down before unfolding a blanket and looking back and forth between Nick and Joe. Joe's eyes are half-shut, but he's looking at Nick. It makes him want to go to Joe's side, squeeze his hand like mother does to him, and ask him if he'd like to read a book. But the more he thinks about it, the more he thinks that maybe, if Joe is sick and needs those tubes running out of him, he would not be able to lay back on Nick, and perhaps not even want to read.

Mother ruffles his hair before she steps up to Joe's rocket ship, and kneels down on one knee, one hand gripping the edge of the bed, and the other running its fingers between the threads of Joe's hair. "Goodnight sweetheart," she says, and it sounds softer than when she says this to Nick before whispering to him that it's okay to go into sleep-mode now. Nick cocks his head to the side, watching, and Joe's not looking at him anymore. He hears the whispered question, _why do I need a brother_ , but ignores it. "Well baby, because - because he is, now. Promise me you'll try? He's very excited to meet you, did you know that? My special boys." Nick un-cocks his head; he knew Joe was special. He doesn't hear or even see a response, mother blocking his view, but Joe does, in fact, nod. But he doesn't believe her. How can a robot be _excited_?

"Mother, may I sleep in here too?" Nick asks, when she turns around, hands running down her thighs, and heaving out an exhale like she does when she's just barely saved the turkey from burning in the oven. She glances back at Joe, Nick's not sure why, but then she nods.

With a thumb running over his cheek, bent at the waist, she says quietly, "Let's go get some pj's on, okay baby?" Father appears in the door at that moment, and folds his arms over his chest. When Nick catches his eye, it's a soft smile he sees, but when he notices the shift from himself to his mother, he sees disappointment. The truth is, he can still hear, even in sleep mode, and he's heard them arguing before. Mother isn't supposed to call him anything but 'Nick', but Nick likes it when she calls him 'Nicky', and 'baby', and 'sweetheart'. He supposes it'd be nice if father would call him those things too, but he never does.

Before his father has the chance to say anything, Nick tugs gently at his mother's shirt-sleeve and asks quietly, "Can we put my pj's on now, mother?" Mom looks down, smile forced, but there at least, and nods. She grabs his hand again and leads him out of the room. Nick looks back to see father leaning back and looking at them, but he hasn't moved from where his arms are crossed tightly over his chest. Nick wonders. But then he stops.

  
For about a month after Joe gets home, Nick doesn't see Joe smile. He doesn't even smile when mother feeds him pudding, which Nick registers as sweet and enjoyable, though he isn't to have any. Nick brings him toy after toy, but Joe only ever reads his comic books and tosses the proffered dinosaurs and soldier men to the floor, clanging against the metal of Nick's feet. Mother tells him to keep trying, so he does. Otherwise, by now, he would have made a connection somewhere to stop.

It's when Joe is finally let up from bed, his surgery taking effect, Joe beginning to heal, that he's allowed to walk around, that he finally starts smiling. Nick will watch Joe for hours sometimes, just waiting to see his lips pull apart, the corners causing creases, and his teeth slick-shiny in a grin. When mother squeezes his shoulder now, he's learned that means it's time to interact, and he approaches his brother and asks him, carefully, if he'd like to play. Joe tends to shake his head no, or look up at his mother with this face that Nick can't read. It's something between the look his father gets when Nick's pet names are used, and the look on his mother's face when Joe clutches at his chest and asks to go back to bed. It makes Nick want to shut down for a while. He'd like for his mother to stop asking him to try. He'd like for Joe not to be bothered.

One day, however, when Joe's been sitting on the couch most of the day, and he tells his mother that he's _read this comic a **million** times_ , Nick doesn't even wait for his mother's command. He walks up to Joe and sets his hands on top of the older boy's leg. At first he remains quiet, just keeping eye contact with Joe, and then he gives a soft smile. "You haven't read me."

"I can't read you, dummy. You're a robot." Nick laughs. It may not sound perfectly real when he does, but it's childish and comes from the same box as his voice, and it makes Joe's eyes go wide in surprise, makes his mother smile wide and a little shocked herself. She knew he was capable, but Nick's never laughed before. Nick thinks maybe he did something wrong with Joe, _again_ , but then his brother smiles and pokes at his cheek. "You feel kinda - real, though." He takes the pad of his finger and brushes it over the back of Nick's hand, and then the other, Nick watching, content to let Joe do whatever he must in order to like him.

"I am real," Nick assures him after a moment, eyes trailing Joe's finger as it keeps inspecting Nick's body, from the small protrusion of his stomach, to the lobes of his ears.

"Sorta," Joe tells him, but his voice is softer now, awed. "Can I touch your eye?" Nick wasn't expecting that, but he smiles again and nods. His eyelids stay open and the camera in his eye zooms in on the pad of Joe's finger as it gets closer and closer. Joe rubs against the glass, and Nick laughs again when Joe pulls back and he's got a fingerprint over everything he sees. "What's so funny?" Joe asks, but he's already starting to laugh too.

"I can see your fingerprint," Nick tells him, like it's something to be proud of. His mother comes over, pulls him around to face her before she uses the bottom of her shirt to wipe it off. "Thank you, mother," Nick tells her with a soft smile. He sees her face, and she seems to have less tension in her than she has in a long while.

"Hey mom," Joe asks, and they both turn to look at him. "Can I - play with him?"

All it takes is mom's _of course_ , full of underlying excitement and maybe accomplishment, before Joe is guiding Nick to his bin of toys and telling him that he's always the sheriff, but Nick can be the robber. Nick doesn't much care what he is as long as he's Joe's brother.


End file.
